The Hamlet, the first novel of Faulkner's Snopes trilogy, is both an ironic take
on classical tragedy and a mordant commentary on the grand pretensions of the a
ntebellum South and the depths of its decay in the aftermath of war and Reconstr
uction. It tells of the advent and the rise of the Snopes family in Frenchman's
Bend, a small town built on the ruins of a once-stately plantation. Flem Snopes
-- wily, energetic, a man of shady origins -- quickly comes to dominate the town
and its people with his cunning and guile.
